Surely there
are coming-of-age novels and films, but who ever heard of a coming-of-age
album? Well, you have… now.

St. Charles, Missouri’s Greenwheel, in
constructing their profoundly rocking Island Records debut Soma
Holiday (so christened to immortalize a former appellation), has
made such a record. The viscerally melodic twelve-track collection
documents Greenwheel’s swift metamorphosis from St. Charles
local band to buzz band-in-waiting and, in the process, the human
condition; a considerable achievement for a three-year-old band
comprised of early twenty-somethings.

“All the way up from your childhood,”
says singer Ryan Jordan, “you’ve had somebody there
to pat your butt along and make sure everything’s going
okay. As soon as you graduate high school, it’s like, ‘welcome
to the real world.’ Who the hell am I? What am I going to
do with myself?”

A definitive answer would come sooner than
Jordan or his bandmates expected. Shortly after forming in November
1998, the band quickly discovered a collective knack for writing
the consummate rock song, circa the new millennium: sweeping,
hooky melodies, massive guitars and brutally earnest lyrics. They
began playing local venues such as Mississippi Nights and The
Pageant, building a devoted fan base and selling copies of a self-produced
CD. One fortuitous night at a local club, Jordan would pass a
copy to producer Malcolm Springer (Full Devil Jacket, Spike 1000,
Liquid Gang). Impressed, Springer whisked them away to Memphis,
Tennessee where they did preproduction on a four-song demo and
then recorded it in Nashville.

Then, a quickening. The demo was done. Greenwheel’s
van was aimed at New York City. They showcased. They signed. All
in a scant three months since hooking up with Springer. The next
order of business was to haul ass back to Tennessee to write their
debut in…a storage shed?

“It was a carpeted box about 7’
x 21’,” reveals Armstrong. “It had dark gray
carpet and we had a couple of mice that hung out with us and climbed
the walls. It had one light switch and it was timed so it would
only last for like 45 minutes, if that.”

The shed sessions were remarkably productive;
isolation from friends and family -rodent pals discounted- a perfect
catalyst for introspection and writing; more than half of Soma
Holiday would be composed there. All told, after the shed, tracking
sessions in Memphis and change-of-scenery jaunts to Gatlinburg,
Tennessee and Portageville, Missouri, Greenwheel would yield a
whopping 25 songs, including the discordantly catchy anthem “Strong,”
the lissome goodbye-to-romance number “Dim Halo” (another
former moniker) and the ardent mid-tempo ballad “Breathe,”
a tune the band wrote and tracked in a single day.

“That one came at the very end of tracking
in Memphis,” says Jordan. “Andy had a verse and a
chorus of that one and he’s just playing it, showing it
to somebody and Malcolm was like, ‘What was that? What was
that? Play that again. Let’s track that!’ It’s
a song about being away. Counting the signs and cursing the miles
in between.”

These songs, as well as the imperial first
single, “Shelter,” showcase Greenwheel’s lyrical
substance and black belt pop sensibilities, which seamlessly blend
the best components of rock’s top shelf. Other songs, such
as “Radiance” and “Faces,” demonstrate
keen observational skills indicative of fine writers.

The latter was written in Portageville; the
small town and one of its citizens, an erstwhile, but persevering
prom queen, providing inspiration. Says Jordan, “One night
at a bar, she was gloating about how she was the prom queen like,
20 years ago. That was her motivating force. She was still stuck
on that feeling. She thought she was the greatest thing in the
world because she was [once] the prom queen.”

He recites a lyric, “‘This place
seems to have no face/there’s no one moving forward/now
they’re just drowning in it all.’ Sometimes people
get to caught up in a comfortable feeling and they don’t
really want to move on.”

Similarly, it’s a song about Greenwheel;
encapsulating their feelings as they prepare to embark on a journey
which will remove them from their familiarities into the wonderful,
terrifying unknown. “We don’t want to leave what we
have right now because we’re so comfortable in it and now
we’re having to move on and let go. The “trust me,
I know” part is like your dad saying, ‘I know what
it feels like.’“

Essentially, says Armstrong, the song confronts
the hardship and rewards associated with change. Jordan elaborates,
explaining it goes to growth, something Greenwheel embraces in
their creative endeavors. “We’re always changing what
we’re listening to. We’re trying to grow. We don’t
want to make any record the same. We want to always be moving
and growing and making different music all the time, you know?
If Picasso painted the same picture each time, it’d be boring,
you know?”

Greenwheel looks forward to the June 2002 release
of Soma Holiday as well as the opportunity to bring their
music to fans across the country. “We want to be continuously
growing with each other and the music, always saying something,”
says Dwiggins. “That’s what we’ll always strive
for. Whether we sell a ton of records or not, the music always
comes first.”

“We’re five individuals who learned
to work well with each other and we’ve all embraced that,”
concludes Ryan. “It’s tough at times, but it has turned
into a really unique relationship. Everyone in this band is a
leader. Each of us brings something unique to our music.”